Function, Role, and Disposition in Basic Formal Ontology

Numerous research groups are now utilizing Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) as an upper-level framework to assist in the organization and integration of biomedical information. This paper provides elucidation of the three BFO categories of function, role, and disposition, and considers two proposed sub-categories of artifactual function and biological function. The motivation is to help advance the coherent treatment of functions, roles, and dispositions, to help provide the potential for more detailed classification, and to shed light on BFO’s general structure and use.